Booting a physical or virtual machine from a virtual disk typically requires a virtual disk configured to boot from a particular machine. Thus, when one boots a physical machine from a virtual disk, that virtual disk is typically configured to boot only physical machines. Similarly, when booting a virtual machine from a virtual disk, that virtual disk is typically configured to boot only virtual machines. The distributed computing environments that exist today are heterogeneous in that they typically include both physical and virtual machines. Having to have two sets of virtual disks, where one set is configured to boot physical machines and the other set is configured to boot virtual machines, is cumbersome. Thus, there exists a need for virtual disks that can boot either physical or virtual machines.
An additional need exists for a creation process that permits the creation of a dual-boot virtual disk in either a physical or virtual computing environment. Currently, virtual disks able to boot physical machines are created in physical machine environments. Similarly, virtual disks able to boot virtual machines are created in virtual machine environments. This creation process is inefficient and cumbersome. A need therefore exists for a method or system for creating a virtual disk able to boot either a physical or virtual machine that can execute in either a physical or virtual computing environment.